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ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 

A SKETCH BY A FRIEND 

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BOSTON 

PRIVATELY PRINTED 
1920 



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The Men^mount Press • Boston 



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ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 

A LICE Cogswell Bemis came from a long 
XJL line of good British stock. She was in the 
eighth generation from John Cogswell, who was 
born at Westbury Leigh, Wiltshire, in 1592. He 
was a man of standing and of considerable in- 
herited property. Among the latter were ''The 
Mylls," called " Ripond," situated in the parish 
of Fromen, Selwood, together with the home- 
stead and certain personal property. He married 
Elizabeth Thompson, a daughter of the Vicar of 
Westbury parish. After twenty years of married 
life, during which they had lived in the family 
homestead and he had carried on his father's 
prosperous business, he decided to emigrate to 
America, and on May 23, 1625, leaving one 
married daughter in England, they embarked 
with their eight other children on the famous 
ship, 7%e Angel Gabriel. We find no mention of 
a special reason for their leaving England, but 
it was probably the same that led many others 
of their type to begin life afresh in the new world ; 
here the possibilities of the country to be devel- 
oped were limitless, and doubtless these offered 



2 A SKETCH 

a better outlook for their children, whose welfare 

must have been uppermost in their thoughts and 

plans. 

The voyage of The Ang-el Gabriel and its 
wreck off Pemaquid, on the coast of Maine, in 
the frightful gale of August 15, 1625, are told in 
the graphic stor}' of the Rev. Richard Mather, 
who was a passenger on the ship James^ which 
sailed from England on the same day. The James 
lay at anchor off the Isles of Shoals while The 
Angel Gabriel was off Pemaquid. She was torn 
fi-om her anchors and obliged to put to sea, but 
after two days' terrible battling with storm and 
wave, reached Boston harbor with " her sails 
rent in sunder, and split in pieces, as if they had 
been rotten rags." Of The Angel Gabriel^ he 
says : " It was burst in pieces and cast away." 
Strong winds from the northeast and great tidal 
waves made it a total wreck. John Cogswell and 
all his family were washed ashore from the broken 
decks of their ship, but several others lost their 
lives. Some of the many valuable possessions they 
had brought with them never came to shore, but 
among the articles saved was a tent which gave 
good service at once; this Mr. Cogswell pitched 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 3 

for a temporary abiding place. As soon as pos- 
sible he took passage for Boston, where he made 
a contract with the captain of a small bark to sail 
for Pemaquid and transport his family to Ips- 
wich, Massachusetts, then a newly settled town. 
The settlers of Ipswich at once appreciated 
these newcomers, and the municipal records show 
that liberal grants of land were made to John 
Cogswell. Among them was one spoken of as 
"Three hundred acres of land at the further 
Chebokoe," which later was incorporated as a 
part of Essex. Here in 1636 their permanent 
home was built, and here, covering a period of 
over two hundred and fifty years, their descend- 
ants cultivated the land. The Cogswells had 
brought with them several farm and household 
servants, as well as valuable ftirniture, farming 
implements, and considerable money. A log house 
was soon built, but the boxes containing their 
many valuables were unopened until it was prac- 
ticable for Mr. Cogswell to build a fi-ame house. 
A description of this remains, in which we are told 
that it stood back from the highway, and was 
approached through shrubbery and flowers. It 
is fluther said, that among the treasures which 



4 A SKETCH 

were taken into the new home from the boxes 
were several pieces of carved furniture, embroi- 
dered curtains, damask table linen, and much 
silver plate ; that there was a Turkish carpet, an 
unusual treasure for those days, is well attested. 
Their descendants still treasure relics of their an- 
cestors, such as articles of personal adornment, 
a quaint mirror, and an old clock. 

John Cogswell was the third original settler 
in that part of Ipswich which is now Essex. His 
piety, his intelligence, and his comparative wealth 
gave him a leading position in the town and the 
church. His name is often seen in the records of 
Ipswich and always with the prefix "Mr.," 
which, in those days, was a title of honor given 
to only a few who were gentlemen of distinction. 
He died November 29, 1669, aged seventy- 
seven years. His funeral procession traversed a 
distance of five miles to the old North grave- 
yard of the First Church, under an escort of 
armed men as a protection against a possible 
attack of Indians. Three years later the body of 
Mrs. Cogswell was laid beside her husband's. 
The record that remains of her is : "She was a 
woman of sterling qualities and dearly loved by 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 5 

all who knew her." Their son, William Cogs- 
well, seems to have had many of his father's 
traits and was one of the most influential citi- 
zens of that period. To him was due the estab- 
lishment of the parish and church and the build- 
ing of the meeting-house; and when, according to 
the quaint custom of those days, the seats in the 
meeting-house were assigned, his wife was given 
the place by the minister's wife, a mark of greatest 
distinction. Two of his grandsons were men of 
note. Colonel Nathaniel Wade was an officer in 
the Revolutionary army and a personal friend of 
Washington and Lafayette. Another, the Rev. 
Abiel Holmes, father of Dr. Oliver Wendell 
Holmes, was a graduate of Yale, and received 
the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Edin- 
burgh. He was settled for many years over the 
First Church of Cambridge. 

One of the deeds of land made to their chil- 
dren was to their son William "on the south 
side of Chebacco River." The variation in the 
spelling of this proper name is one of the many 
we find in early New England records. At the 
same time a dwelling at Chebacco Falls was given 
to Deacon Cornelius Waldo, who had married 



6 A SKETCH 

their daughter Hannah. In direct line of descent 
from these two, and in the sixth generation from 
the first Cogswell in America, was Ralph Waldo 
Emerson. Mrs. Bemis was in the eighth gener- 
ation, through the son William, and from him 
also was descended Oliver Wendell Holmes, in 
the fifth generation. We cannot well follow here 
the descendants of the other children of John and 
Elizabeth Cogswell, but certain it is that in each 
of the generations to the present day we find many 
well-educated men and women of character, with 
a strong sense of their obligations as citizens, all 
doing good work for the world in various lines 
of activity. They have verified what one has writ- 
ten concerning John Cogswell and his family: 
" They were the first of the name to reach these 
shores ; the lapse of two hundred and fifty years 
has given to them a numerous posterity, some of 
whom in each generation have lived in eventful 
periods, have risen to eminence, and fulfilled dis- 
tinguished service in the history of the country." 

With these rich inheritances as her birthright, 
with parents who enforced and strengthened in 
their children the principles that they themselves 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 7 

had been taught, Alice Cogswell was bom in the 
family home of her parents, Daniel and Mary 
Davis Randall Cogswell, at Ipswich, on January 
5, 1845. She was one of seven children, three 
of whom died very young, and of the seven only 
her sister Lucy survived her. The mother died 
when Alice was only four. Until the time of the 
father's death, when she was eighteen and her 
sister three years older, several different house- 
keepers were in charge of the home, and yet it ap- 
pears that these two young girls very early and 
in a way most unusual for any so young, not only 
gave life and charm to the house, but directed 
and controlled all its activities to a great extent. 
A cousin who was very dear to Alice writes to 
her son of his memory of those days in the quiet 
country home at Ipswich, giving a charming pic- 
ture that shows the spirit that prompted all her 
life to its end. He says: "Ever}' one in Ipswich 
who remembers her would speak of her sweet, 
cheery and generous spirit. One of the very ear- 
liest of my childhood recollections is a little in- 
cident that occurred when I could not have been 
more than four or five years old. One day my 
mother let me go all by myself to Uncle Cogs- 



8 A SKETCH 

well's to see Cousin Alice. Our homes were rather 
near together but it was to me then a journey 
of large proportions. At dinner I can remember 
that I sat next Cousin Alice in a chair with two 
big books to make it high enough. After dinner 
we went into the garden and picked a basket of 
pears which she gave me to take home. This 
little visit was like many others that followed and 
it is typical of all that she has done through- 
out a long and useful life. Though I was only 
a little fellow, I have a strong impression of an 
energetic, influential family, full of good deeds, 
and of a large house with well stocked cellars and 
larders that seemed to exist chiefly for the benefit 
of neighbors and friends. Lucy and Alice were 
beautiful young women. Their mother died when 
they were quite young, and while they were in 
their early 'teens' they were in charge of the 
Cogswell home. This they made most attractive. 
My boyhood impression is that they were always 
doing nice things for people — always sending 
their friends baskets from their larder. I have a 
wonderful impression of Uncle Cogswell's gar- 
den. As gardens go nowadays it may not have 
been unusual, but to me it was a rare spot. It 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 9 

contained choice varieties of currants, gooseber- 
ries, pears and cherries. There may have been 
some apple trees, but I have the feeling that apples 
were a trifle common to associate with his exotic 
varieties. From the time of my father's death, 
which occurred when I was eight years old. 
Cousin Alice seemed to assume a godmotherly 
interest in me and my career. Three evenings a 
week I went to the Lowell Institute, which kept 
me in town too late to go home to Ipswich, and 
she gave me a key to her home in Newton and 
had a room always ready for my use. She al- 
ways took a generous interest in my work. Her 
moral support was everything to me. She made 
me feel that my profession was worthy and dig- 
nified." Many students whom she helped in later 
years would gladly give the same testimony of 
support and encouragement received from her. 
The sisters attended the Ipswich Seminary, 
one of the famous schools of New England in its 
day. Its principal, Mrs. Cowles, had an attrac- 
tive personality, a cultivated mind, and great force 
of character. Her husband. Dr. Cowles, was a 
clergyman and a man of wide influence, though 
because of his blindness he was not in the active 



10 A SKETCH 

ministry for many years. In spite of this seem- 
ingly insurmountable obstacle he was a constant 
student, especially of Greek and Hebrew, and 
wrote much of value on the Old Testament. His 
presence added greatly to the household, whose 
refined and stimulating atmosphere seems to have 
made as strong an impression on the students as 
did the soundness of the teaching in the class- 
room. The two sisters, Lucy and Alice, took the 
entire course of study that the seminary offered. 
Alice graduated from it in 1864. Many of its 
pupils became women of large influence in the 
world, and carried from their life in the semi- 
nary a profound impression of the religious in- 
fluences that had surrounded them there. Their 
own thought and their manner of life showed 
the lasting value of the emphasis that had been 
laid in the school on the supreme importance of 
right living and right thinking. Those who knew 
the sisters well recall the many times in after years 
when, as they mentioned some wise rule for life, 
they prefaced it with, "As Mrs. Cowles used 
to tell us," or "as Dr. Cowles said." One of 
Mrs. Cowles's daughters now living writes of 
Alice: "I remember that she was universally 



JLICE COGSWELL BEMIS 11 

liked and loved." It was a happy school life and 
a happy girlhood for both of these sisters. Not- 
withstanding their great loss in having to grow 
to womanhood without their mother, a loss of 
which they were always conscious, they had great 
compensation in their close companionship with 
their father and with each other. Their father 
gave them the best of instruction in things spirit- 
ual, and unusual training in all practical matters, 
especially with regard to the value of money, 
how to care for it and how to spend it, and then 
gave them a much freer hand in the direction ot 
many personal matters than most girls of their 
age were accustomed to have; this freedom they 
used wisely. One of them was once asked how 
they filled their days in times that often seem very 
dull and uninteresting to the modern girl with 
her round of engagements. The answer was, 
'' We skated in winter and ran wild in summer." 
What was said in jest was far from being the 
literal truth, but it suggests the happy impres- 
sion that their girlhood gave them of genuine 
freedom guided by the wise counsels of others and 
their own good sense. 

In June of 1864 Lucy Cogswell was married 



12 A SKETCH 

to Mr. George B. Roberts, and their house be- 
came home to Alice. Mr. Roberts afterward built 
the house on Craigie Street, Cambridge, in which 
they spent the rest of their lives. It was here that 
the two generations met often while the Bemis 
family lived in the east, and later when they came 
on from Colorado. The relation between the 
sisters had hitherto been a particularl}^ close one, 
and was only strengthened by the happy new 
family ties that came to each. To those who loved 
these sisters and saw both come to a time when 
feebleness and physical restriction might have 
been before them, there can be only rejoicing that 
they were spared any added weakness of body, 
and that there was no clouding of their bright 
and active minds, no abatement of interest in the 
life about them as long as they were here. Mrs. 
Roberts had been in such delicate health for sev- 
eral years that it did not seem possible that she 
would outlive her sister, but only two months 
after their last parting, the great transition came 
to her also. 

We are given a charming glimpse into the first 
meeting between Mr. and Mrs. Bemis in some 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 13 

interesting reminiscences Mr. Bemis has recently 
written for his grandchildren. He had been set- 
tled in business in St. Louis for some years when 
Alice Cogswell, shortly after her sister's mar- 
riage, went there to visit a very dear aunt, ''" Aunt 
Tii i i'ji Smyth." The occasion of their meeting 
came through Mr. Bemis's first visit to Boston 
in 1865, which, in his own words, "resulted in 
an important occurrence." He met there a busi- 
ness connection, Mr. Zenas Gushing, who had 
become Alice Cogswell's guardian on the death 
of her father; knowing that Mr. Bemis was from 
St. Louis, Mr. Cushing gave him a letter of in- 
troduction to his ward and bespoke his interest 
in her and his help in any business advice she 
might need. Mr. Bemis tells his story thus: 
" Some three weeks after my return from Boston 
I gave myself the pleasure of calling one evening 
and presenting the letter. As I am writing these 
lines I can see ' Miss Cogswell' coming into the 
parlor where I was awaiting her. She was dressed 
in the fashion of the day, having on a silk dress 
with a very ftill skirt held out by a hoop-skirt of 
large dimensions. She met me cordially and asked 
me to be seated and we talked for an hour of my 



14 J SKETCH 

first trip to Boston, of her guardian and others. 
As I was leaving and closing the gate I heard 
myself saying that I might marry that girl if I 
could win her. It was not so-called 'love at first 
sight,' but it ripened into love with a few sub- 
sequent calls. I think it was a very fortunate cir- 
cumstance that I met Alice Cogswell when I 
did." And ver}^ fortunate for many others did 
this union prove. The outward condition of their 
early lives was very different, but the two fami- 
lies from which they came were alike in the stand- 
ards which they held for themselves and in- 
stilled into their children. 

The story of Mr. Bemis's early years is the 
familiar one of that type of western pioneer to 
whom the whole country is deeply indebted. He 
was bom in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, on May 
18, 1833, of parents who had all the best inherit- 
ance to give their children, but few material pos- 
sessions. When he was an infant the family moved 
to a small village in Chemung County, New York, 
where his mother's brother, Henry Farwell, lived 
with his family. The relation between the two 
families was a close one, and five years later it 
was decided that they should move together to 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 15 

Illinois. Reports of its fertile soil and what it 
promised for the future had come back to them 
by the slow and uncertain mails. They knew that 
it offered more for themselves, and what was far 
more important to them, for their children, than 
they could ever have in their present surround- 
ings. When they made the great change they 
knew well the dangers and difficulties that must 
be met on the journey when taken under the 
most favorable conditions. They knew, too, how 
these would be increased in their case, as they 
were taking so many young children, eight in 
all; but the courageous band to which they be- 
longed were men and women of industry and 
personal integrity, with a strong sense of real 
values, who, having made their decision, took no 
reckoning of obstacles to the end before them. 

It was a long, difficult journey. In a pleasant 
sketch of this that Mr. Bemis has given, we have 
only the lemembrance of such incidents as stay 
in the memoiy of a child. There is no mention 
of hardships. He recalls the covered wagon, but 
know^s only from others of the slow journey to 
Buffalo, thence by boat to Detroit, and the con- 
tinued journey to Chicago, then Fort Dearborn, 



16 A SKETCH 

where they did not remain for fear of being eaten 
by mosquitoes or of having fever and ague, and 
so camped at what is now Oak Park. Thence they 
moved on to Lighthouse Point, Ogle County, 
Illinois, where the Bemis family found a tempo- 
rary lodging in a log cabin and the others lived in 
covered wagons until they had built a comfortable 
cabin for themselves. 

From the beginning of the making of the new 
home on the empty prairie, the children took 
their full share in the work it involved. Mr. 
Bemis has told us that he was doing from one- 
half to two-thirds of a man's work on the farm 
when he was twelve years old, the year in which 
his wife was born into the well-established life of 
a fine old New England town, rich for her in all 
the inheritances that seven generations gave ; all 
the way before her made as smooth as love and 
ample means could make it. 

At the age of nineteen Mr. Bemis left the 
farm and began his business career in Chicago 
as clerk to a shipping firm. After six years, with 
only his own savings for his capital, and helped 
by the loan of some machinery supplied by a 
cousin, he went to St. Louis and began the busi- 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 17 

ness which has borne his name for over sixty 
years, a name that is a synonym in all the busi- 
ness world for ability and integrity. His success 
did not come by accident, or by any so-called 
good fortune, but as the result of patience and 
perseverance, steadily following the principles 
and the rules he laid down for himself very early 
in life. He speaks with gratitude of the fact that 
he had to learn by force of circumstances " the 
blessedness of drudgery and the value of time 
and money in his long hours of work and in 
the closest practice of economy." 

We have seen how different were the outward 
circumstances of their early lives. In temperament 
also Mr. and Mrs. Bemis differed much; but in 
sympathy on all great matters, in their ideals of 
life, and their unfailing recognition of their own 
personal obligation and duty, they were always 
one. In the reminiscences he has written for his 
grandchildren, Mr. Bemis says: " Parents can lay 
the foundation for each child by their own life. 
They are giving daily examples by their actions 
and byword of mouth. If parents are living well- 
ordered and Christian lives, their children will be 
likely to follow their example. They will know 



18 A SKETCH 

nothing else. Good boys and girls make good 
men and women. An educated and scientific car- 
penter will hew and mortise the timbers to fit the 
keys that bind the frame to a complete and solid 
house, so that storm and winds pass it by un- 
harmed. So with boys and girls; if their charac- 
ters are moulded in truth, mortised and keyed 
together with obedience to God and man, when 
they become men and women they will withstand 
the environment of bad persons and escape un- 
scathed. Hence their young lives, founded on the 
bedrock of Christian characters, are well quali- 
fied to work out their own destiny and make their 
lives whatever they will." 

Mr. and Mrs. Bemis were married at the home 
of Mr. and Mrs. George B. Roberts, in Cam- 
bridgeport, Massachusetts, on November 21, 
1866, and went directly to their new home in 
St. Louis. There the oldest son, Judson Cogs- 
well, was born in December of the following 
year; and there they remained until they re- 
turned to Boston in 1870, when for business 
reasons it became necessary for Mr. Bemis to 
have his headquarters in that city. After the birth 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 19 

of the second son, Albert Farwell, they moved 
to Newton, Massachusetts,where then- three other 
children were bom : Maude, now Mrs. Reginald 
H. Parsons, Lucy Gardner, who lived less than 
three years, and Alice, now Mrs. Frederick 
M. P. Taylor. Three of these survived their 
mother and had long been established in their 
own homes before she left them. To the father 
and mother was given the great happiness of 
seeing each of these new households controlled 
by the same standards of right and the same sense 
of personal and civic responsibility on which they 
had built their own united lives. 

Mr. and Mrs. Bemis's home was in Newton 
for eleven years, and during that time it was the 
centre for the family connection in New England 
and for many friends. It was always rich in asso- 
ciation for themselves and family, and was made 
rich in the same way for many others. Family 
cares that came upon Mrs. Bemis and the part 
she took in the life of the church and the com- 
munity made the years spent there the most 
active of her life. After her removal to Colorado 
Springs, she showed in a practical and liberal 
form her interest in the First Congregational 



20 ^ SKETCH 

Church in that city, which the family attended, 
but she had such a strong sentiment about the 
church at Newton and the experiences that came 
to her while connected with it that she ne\'er re- 
moved her membership ; its pastor. Dr. Calkins, 
and his wife were among her most valued friends. 

In 1881 a serious throat trouble developed, and 
Mrs. Bemis was taken south for the winter. 
She did not gain there, and the following year 
was sent to Colorado Springs. Slight hope was 
then given to her family of her living more than 
a few months, but the climate and the sunshine 
effected what had seemed impossible, and within 
a few years she was able to lead a comparatively 
normal life in the new home where she was hap- 
pily settled. A house was rented for the family 
until 1885, when the one at 508 North Cascade 
Avenue was built. This was henceforth home to 
her and to all the family as long as she was there 
with her welcome for them, and it soon became 
a centre for a large number of friends who are 
rich in memories of the unfailing welcome and 
genuine hospitality so freely given them. These 
were not restricted to a limited number with 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 21 

tastes and outward circumstances that were com- 
paratively alike, but were extended to a large 
circle that differed widely in both of these. The 
sincerity, genuineness, and simplicity of the lives 
of those that made this home created an atmos- 
phere that was felt as soon as one entered it. 

Many of the younger generation both within 
and without the family circle will have enduring 
memories of that house. Alan Gregg recalled in 
a few words childhood memories that were com- 
mon to many; writing from his post in France he 
said: ""Mrs. Bemis's death was a great surprise 
and shock, and the long time that elapsed be- 
tween knowing of her illness and her death made 
me feel pretty far away. I remember her letting 
me play that music box to my heart's content, 
and the way she made Gregg laugh at an un- 
expected fall he took, instead of cry, better than 
anything else. She could also do nice things for 
you without spilling over into sentimentality." 
Her grandchildren's recollections of her will 
be mostly in connection with events in their own 
homes, where her visits were looked for eagerly 
by those on the Atlantic coast and those on the 
Pacific, but happily some of them are old enough 



22 A SKETCH 

to remember and pass on to the others the im- 
pression made on them and on other children in 
the family connection, of the grandmother's great 
pleasure in being with them and her plans for their 
comfort and happiness. They recall the perfect 
housekeeping, where the wheels seemed to move 
easily and were always out of sight; the dainti- 
ness of all its appointments, which was shown too 
in the dress and personal adornments of her who 
made this home and of those who shared it with 
her. Here she welcomed many of her old friends 
and also new acquaintances with whom lasting 
friendships were formed ; here the children gath- 
ered around them a fine group of congenial com- 
panions who became their lasting friends; here 
they grew to manhood and to womanhood; from 
thence they were all married, and hither they all 
returned many times, with wife, husbands, and 
their own sons and daughters for happy family 
reunions. 

In this home the saddest as well as the most 
joyful experiences of her life came to her. The 
former were borne with the calmness and strength 
shown only by those with great capacity for suf- 
fering and great power of self-control. The hard- 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 23 

est trial that she had ever known was at a time 
when she had little physical strength to meet it. 
After a year with the family in Colorado, the 
eldest son, Judson, was sent to a manual training 
school at St. Louis, Missouri, where there were 
many family friends. He was a lad of much prom- 
ise, a great reader, with varied gifts and tastes. 
He had a very social nature and a warm interest 
in people, was noble in character, and deep in his 
affections. The separation was very hard for his 
mother, but it was met with the unselfishness she 
always showed when her children's interests were 
to be considered. She herself chose it, as she wanted 
him to have this special kind of training that 
could not be found nearer home. In the second 
year of his absence he was taken suddenly ill with 
pneumonia. His parents were summoned at once, 
and his father arrived before his death, but his 
mother could not reach St. Louis till some hours 
later. The loss of the little daughter Lucy, who 
had died in Newton of scarlet fever, was still fresh 
in her memory when the new sorrow came. This 
was borne wonderfully, but it changed all life 
for her as nothing else ever did. In 1904 came the 
third break in the family circle, when Mrs. Par- 



24 A SKETCH 

sons with her beautiful little girl, Alice Loraine, 
nearly three years old, the first granddaughter in 
the family, was visiting her grandparents in Colo- 
rado Springs. No child could have been more 
tenderly loved and cared for than she, but noth- 
ing could avert the fatal illness that developed 
soon after their arrival. 

During the years that followed her going west, 
Mrs. Bemis spent only one summer there. For 
several successive seasons she went with her chil- 
dren to Minnetonka in Minnesota; but it was 
not possible for Mr. Bemis to be with them there 
more than he was during the winter, because of 
its distance from Boston, and a happy change 
came to all when later Mrs. Bemis had gained 
enough to make it safe for her to spend some 
months of each year by the sea on Cape Ann, 
where the family had headquarters for many 
summers. Twice she went abroad with her chil- 
dren; first during the summer of 1891 and five 
years later for a year of study and extended travel 
for her daughters. Marjorie Gregg, who knew 
her well, recalling her many journeys, says: 
" Few not loving travel for its own sake could 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 25 

or would have taken so many long journeys. 
The trips east in the spring and back to Colo- 
rado in the autumn became a habit, and she car- 
ried them out with precision and determination 
that did not ignore discomforts; she saw these, 
felt them and mentioned them, but never feared 
or regarded them. She planned and packed and 
made all arrangements without confusion or mis- 
takes; never 4ook it out' on other people, but 
refused help even in late years. It would be im- 
possible to count up the miles travelled, the time 
spent on Pullman cars, the trunks packed — all 
not because of Wanderlust^ curiosity, or restless- 
ness, but for love of family — that she and her 
children might be with their father half of each 
year and that she might keep close to her sister 
and nieces, whose relation to 'Aunt Alice' was 
as close as if the two families had lived in the 
same town. Later Grandpa and Grandma Bemis 
journeyed together indefatigably." 

When Mr. Bemis laid aside many of the de- 
tails of his business, they chose Lake Mohonk, 
New York, for their summer home, and the last 
seven summers of her life were spent very hap- 
pily there; so happily, that each year they en- 



26 A SKETCH 

gaged the same rooms for the following season 
and said they meant to do this as long as they 
lived. It became a real home to them. Mr. and 
Mrs. Smiley, wonderful host and hostess to all, 
were soon their warm personal friends, and many 
pleasant acquaintances with guests were renewed 
each year. Among their most valued friends there 
was Dr. Faunce, president of Brown University, 
who conducted the Sunday services year after 
year. They considered his sermons as among the 
best and most helpful they ever heard, and after 
each season thought and talked much of them, 
always looking forward to the coming of the 
summer Sundays, their brightest days at Mohonk. 
Here every condition met their tastes and their 
needs; the great beauty of the place itself, the 
quiet and peace of the house, the wise and un- 
usual way in which it is ordered, all combined to 
give them an ideal residence for the summer. The 
fact that young people of a fine type were al- 
ways there added much to Mrs. Bemis's pleas- 
ure. She enjoyed watching their sports and their 
life in the open. Her windows overlooked the 
lake, and she sat there hour after hour watching 
the parties coming and going in boats and climb- 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 27 

ing the hills. Her delight in the beauties of the 
whole picture before her, than which there are 
few to compare with it the world over, grew 
steadily with each day there. Just before leaving 
Mohonk for the last time, she wrote to a young 
cousin: "I wish I could transport you all here. 
I have always said that I would like to live on 
a beautiful estate and have no care of it; and 
here I have been for seven summers and no place 
by any possibility could be finer. Mr. Smiley did 
not spoil nature but kept its wonderful beauty 
and added to it." 

During the last years they were together, Mr. 
and Mrs. Bemis made several interesting trips to 
California and to Seattle, to be with their daugh- 
ter, Mrs. Parsons. The mere recital of all these 
journeyings may give the impression that the life 
in Colorado Springs was a very broken one, but 
it did not seem so to her friends there, for at each 
return it was resumed so quickly and so quietly 
that they think of it rather as continuous. No 
friend and no interest she had in any work that 
helped on the general welfare was ever ignored 
or forgotten by her wherever she might be. 



28 A SKETCH 

Probably there has never been any one in Col- 
orado Springs with so many enforced absences 
and the same limitations of strength who has done 
as much as she in enriching individual lives with 
friendship and the community life with sym- 
pathy and generous material aid. Nothing that 
she counted a duty sat lightly on her mind or 
conscience. 

Miss Ellen T. Brinley, who was for many years 
a friend and neighbor of Mrs. Bemis, wrote 
shortly after her death: "She was a real New 
Englander of a type all too rare in these degen- 
erate days. For many years she was not very 
strong, and yet she was one of the least self-in- 
dulgent people that ever lived. Wealth to her was 
not a reason for luxury and pleasure seeking, 
but an opportunity for helping others — with a 
lack of ostentation characteristic of her whole 
nature. She was truly a secret helper. That the 
young should have their chance in life and that 
the paths of the needy should be made more easy, 
became increasingly the object of her life. Colo- 
rado College and the Young Women's Chris- 
tian Association were the two organizations in 
Colorado Springs whose welfare she had most at 




^ 






ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 29 

heart, and for them she was constantly devising 
liberal things. In the wakeful hours of the night, 
she planned to relieve the sufferings of others, and 
her spirit of good will came from no weak senti- 
mentality. She was a woman of good judgment, 
an incisive mind, and a strong character. She was 
a wonderfriUy loyal friend and her daily life cen- 
tred in her own family circle, in a few personal 
friendships, and in the benevolence which was her 
avocation." 

Even her closest friends knew but little of her 
constant and quiet deeds of kindness, and that 
rarely from her directly. It could never be said 
of her that she was '' confidential with her left 
hand." From the recipients of her generosity 
more is known than could have been learned from 
her. Often with an apology lest she might seem 
to intrude, she learned if friends, and sometimes 
mere acquaintances and even strangers, needed 
assistance at a time when she knew an emergency 
had come to them, and often asked others to be 
the means of meeting such needs, not letting it 
be known whence the help came. ''Just tell them 
you have it to give away," she would often say. 
Sometimes she gave to personal friends a check, 



30 A SKETCH 

asking that they spend it as they thought best in 

ministering to others. 

This was done for many years to some who 
were in close touch with the students of Colorado 
College. " Don't take the trouble to give an ac- 
count of this," she would say, "only be sure that 
it goes where it is really needed." But when the 
account was rendered, she wanted to hear all that 
could be told of the circumstances of each one 
who had been helped, and often arranged that 
certain of these should have further assistance. To 
a number this was voluntarily continued during 
their professional studies. The following, from a 
letter to her son in 1908, shows her sympathetic 
understanding of the students whom she helped : 

" I wonder if I told you that the suit that you 

left here I gave to Mrs. S for one of the 

college boys. The lining was greatly worn and so 
I pinned on an envelope with ^5.00 in it and she 
gave it to a very needy fellow who is working 
and attending college. She had a letter fi-om him 
and from the mother. I am going to send her 
letter and some other letters from other boys to 
whom the President has given a little from time 
to time from a little that I gave him early in the 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 31 

winter. I want you to read them, fori don't think 
that any of us realize how brave these poor stu- 
dents are, and really they are the ones whom we 
hear of later; the rich men's sons fall short in 
some way." 

Mrs. Bemis was one of a group of women who, 
in the spring of 1889, organized the Women's 
Education Society of Colorado College. The 
resolutions passed by its executive board at the 
time of her death so adequately express her re- 
lation to the Society that they are here quoted 
in full : 

^'The Executive Board of the Women's Ed- 
ucational Society wishes to place on record its 
sense of irreparable loss in the passing of Alice 
Cogswell Bemis. 

" Her association with the work of the Soci- 
ety has extended over a long period of years, and 
her part in it has always been characterized by 
fidelity to the purpose of the organization and 
keen discrimination in the execution of the trust. 
She brought to the problems confronting the 
Board rare insight and judgment, and her busi- 
ness acumen was invaluable. 



32 A SKETCH 

" Many students of Colorado College are per- 
sonally indebted to her for the removal of ob- 
stacles in the way of the successflil prosecution of 
their work in which her interest was vital and 
perennial. A story of genuine need never failed 
to elicit her assistance. Of her general construc- 
tive planning for the many-sided life of the young 
women, Bemis Hall and Cogswell Theatre are 
enduring evidence. 

"The Board has lost a useful member, her 
friends a wise counselor, and philanthropic agen- 
cies a generous helper to whom worthy cause or 
person never appealed in vain." 

Another organization to which she contributed 
much pleasure and from which she received the 
same is the Art Club of Colorado Springs. A 
group of women whose personal relation to her 
was close and increasingly dear as the years passed, 
formed its membership. They met twice a month 
at each other's houses, read, and studied pictures, 
finding, as one says, " an alleviation not unwel- 
come in that life where tuberculosis and the gold 
fever of the early days alternately possessed the 
atmosphere." The Art Club owed much of its 
genuine life to Mrs. Bemis ; her interest in art. 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 33 

her keenness to acquire and classify the know- 
ledge that she loved, was as strong as her friend- 
ship and neighborliness. The utmost hospitality 
to invalid strangers was part and parcel of those 
Colorado Springs early days, and in goodness 
to obscure invalids and in lending a hand in 
hard times no one could tell the extent of her 
benefactions. 

All that Mrs. Bemis did will never be 
known, and what she gave was never told at the 
time unless it seemed best for obvious reasons 
that her identification with a good movement 
should be made public. The unsolicited gifts must 
have been manifold compared with those she 
gave in response to appeals. It was always easy 
to approach her for any good cause. If she gave, 
it was always with good will ; if she declined to 
do so, a distinct reason for the refrisalwas stated; 
and she was as careful not to pauperize by giving 
as she was not to withhold where it was due, and 
was entirely free from the bitterness common to 
a certain type of persons who are wont to think 
that their generosity is being imposed upon. She 
often afforded amusement to her friends by the 
way in which she prefaced an offer of help with 



34 A SKETCH 

a seeming apology. She even seemed at times to 
call those who were working in a good cause to 
account because its pressing needs had not been 
met, and then met them herself. 

A notable instance of this was her gift of the 
gymnasium to the Young Women's Christian 
Association. When the present Association build- 
ing was erected she gave generously to the build- 
ing fund. A gymnasium was greatly needed then, 
but no money was available for it. A space was 
left on the lot that had been purchased in the hope 
that a building might be put there later. Very 
soon the growth of the work showed that no 
gymnasium adequate even for the present de- 
mands could be built on that limited space. The 
girls of the Association clamored for it and the 
members of the board, who even more than 
they knew how much it was needed, were heavy 
hearted. No one spoke of the situation to Mrs. 
Bemis until she herself broached it to one of the 
board in a tone that, to one who did not know 
her, might have seemed a reprimand. She pre- 
faced what was on her mind thus: " I do not 
approve at all of your putting up a building on 
that small space. You ought to buy that lot to the 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 35 

north.'" The board member could but agree. The 
protest was again made, and the board member 
could only repeat her agreement, but knew from 
the manner of approach to the subject that some- 
thing was back in Mrs. Bemis's mind that she 
would have to tell, though she wished it might 
be known without her telling it! And then it 
came. She would like to see that lot when no 
one would know that she was looking at it, and 
if it was n't too much trouble, could it be ar- 
ranged for her to do this? It was planned that 
she should go early one Sunday morning to the 
building, when very few were in the lower rooms. 
She looked out on the vacant space and said, 
" Don't you see it will not do at all? " Within 
twenty-four hours she asked some one to nego- 
tiate for the purchase of the lot at the north and 
gave it to the Association, adding a check that 
made possible the present beautiflil gymnasium. 
She dismissed with no mistaken emphasis the 
proposal that this should bear her name. Her 
pleasure in the building was great, and in ex- 
pressing this pleasure she always seemed only to 
be commending the Association for having it. 
Her part in it seemed nothing to her. ''Others 



36 A SKETCH 

have had to do all the work," she would say if 

her gift was mentioned. 

When Bemis Hall, the main residence for girls 
at Colorado College, was being built, it was found 
that by excavating under the dining-room there 
would be space for a theatre, in which the stu- 
dents could give plays and various college meet- 
ings might be held. This was done, and the room 
was named Cogswell Theatre in her honor. It 
must be admitted that the latter was done under 
protest, although aided and abetted by some of 
her family. " What would my ancestors say to 
having a theatre bear their name!" she said, 
laughing. Among the memories of the past nine 
years to those who have enjoyed that little the- 
atre, none is happier than that of seeing the faces 
of two very dear friends following each word 
and movement on the stage, laughing at times 
till the tears came, and giving over and over their 
entire approval of the existence of the theatre, 
with no further protest against its name. These 
two friends rarely missed seeing whatever was 
presented on that stage, though seldom tempted by 
public entertainments to give up their quiet even- 
ings at home. Indeed, everything in that beautiful 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 37 

hall named for Mr. Bemis — whose generosity, 
to the college is there made known only in part — 
seemed to give them pleasure, and no one else 
will ever cross its threshold who can receive just 
the kind of welcome they always found await- 
ing them. 

While the number of organizations which 
Mrs. Bemis helped is not known, and it is im- 
possible to mention those which for many years 
counted on her interest and liberal support, one 
must be noted as showing her abiding interest in 
all that related to her native town and the region 
about it. This is the Ipswich Historical Society, 
which was organized in 1890, and of which she 
was the first life member. On its twenty-fifth an- 
niversary, in response to what was only a printed 
appeal, she sent the first substantial gift of money 
it received. Within a few months of her death, 
learning that a fireproof building for the Society 
had been proposed, she wrote to Mr.T. Frank- 
lin Waters, its president, asking for particulars 
of the plan under consideration, and on receipt of 
his reply sent a check for so large a proportion of 
the estimated cost that she was asked to consent 
to have the building named for her. Following 



38 A SKETCH 

a determination made long before that her gifts 
should not be made conspicuous in any way, she 
would not consent to this. 

Mrs. Bemis was as quick, open, and generous in 
her recognition of what others did along philan- 
thropic lines as she was reticent concerning her 
own good deeds. This was especially noticeable 
in her attitude toward all the private and public 
benefactions of her husband and children. Her 
quiet satisfaction in these was beautiful to see. 
Her children received all sympathy and encour- 
agement in every good work they undertook, but 
she never assumed the right to dictate in these 
matters or took any credit to herself for anything 
they did, not thinking of the power of her exam- 
ple and the life-long training she had given them. 
Her recognition of all her husband's benefac- 
tions and her sympathy in his planning for them 
were unfailing. One of the most important and 
far reaching of these was in connection with a 
work along social lines in the town of Bemis, 
Tennessee, where hisfinn had built a cotton mill. 
From the inception of the town the need of this 
work was much in the thought of their son, who 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 39 

has since succeeded his father as president of their 
company, and whose practical interest in the bet- 
terment of all social relations, especially of those 
between the employer and the employed, is widely 
known. Together they carried out their ideals in 
the new town of Bemis. The operators were those 
known in the south as poor whites. The opening 
of the mill gave to these people an undreamed 
of opportunity to earn money. It also offered to 
them a great privilege and at the same time a 
possibility of great danger. The privilege was that 
of being able for the first time in their lives to 
command money and to use it so that it would 
make them better and happier; the danger was 
that they might use it so that moral deteriora- 
tion would follow. Both these possibilities were 
foreseen in the first plans for the town, and provi- 
sion was made for the physical, mental, and spirit- 
ual needs of the people that would as far as possi- 
ble avert the danger. A social worker was engaged 
to live as a friend among the people, and a church, 
school, and library were provided for them. Mrs. 
Bemis had much pleasure in following every step 
in the development of this work, while careful 
to disclaim any credit for its success, again not 



40 A SKETCH 

thinking what her encouragement and coopera- 
tion meant to both husband and son. But they and 
all her children pay her full tribute for the stimu- 
lus of example and for the sympathy shown in 
every good work to which they put their hands. 

This woman of many noble traits was espe- 
cially endowed with the rare gift of loyal and 
understanding friendship. Her relation to kin- 
dred and personal friends brought to her and to 
them an unusual degree of happiness. This was 
so great a factor in her life that it may seem as if 
special mention of many of these fi-iends should 
be made in even so brief a sketch as this. But they 
themselves will realize how impossible this would 
be because the circle to which they belong is so 
large. She was not blind to the failings of her 
friends, but was clear in her comprehension of 
their fundamental traits, and her love for them, 
her strong though often undemonstrative inter- 
est in them, never abated. While she added to 
their number many times during her stay in dif- 
ferent places, no new friend or new interest ever 
took the place of an old one. Her generous heart 
had room for all whom she took to it. 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 41 

Her correspondence with friends was surpris- 
ingly large in view of the frequency of her letters 
to her own immediate circle; when the family be- 
came widely scattered this might easily have been 
made an excuse for dropping much of the general 
correspondence, but instead of that it grew as the 
circle of her interest widened. No one was neg- 
lected and all letters were written with her own 
hand. During the last years of her life much of 
her mail that was not personal became a distinct 
burden with its increasing appeals from all di- 
rections, but she conscientiously attended to it all 
herself. An abundance of good common sense 
helped her to ignore many of these, but any that 
could not be laid aside lightly she investigated 
in a way that took much time and strength. 

Her outspoken nature and uncompromising 
mind often made her draw hard and fast lines in 
no unmistakable way as to conduct that met her 
approval or condemnation, but she asked no one 
to come up to any standard higher than she had 
laid down for herself. She wanted above all things 
to be just, and few people are so essentially just 
as she was. To quote a friend, " her judgment of 
character w^as clear, just, and vigorous.*" 



42 A SKETCH 

One fixed habit of her mind must not be 
overlooked : this was unwillingness to accept any 
help in whatever she could possibly do herself. 
Many friends thought this a failing and fre- 
quently told her so. They were wont to rebel 
against the fact that they could not serve her, 
while she was a past master in the art of serving 
others. Her swift motions and deft hands, im- 
pelled by her quick mind, would outwit half a 
dozen people who were looking for means by 
which to circumvent her. No amount of urging 
could lead her to agree to be waited upon if that 
could be avoided, and she often refused to accept 
ministrations at times when it seemed to others 
that they were necessary to her comfort. But 
even at such times she would withhold no service 
for another. Whatever mention the Recording 
Angel may make of this failing, it will be very 
brief compared with what is written of the count- 
less deeds of love and of kindness for others with 
which she filled her days. 

Fortunately, many letters to the family and other 
friends have been kept. They are singularly like 
her; never diffuse, but with that rare and happy 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 43 

characteristic of telling concretely and clearly 
what was of most interest to those to whom 
they were written, and never letting irrelevant 
generalities take the place of matters of impor- 
tance. In reading these letters consecutively we 
are struck by the naive and unconscious way 
in which she reveals much of herself They con- 
tain few allusions to her own discomforts, but 
abound in sympathy for any that have come to 
those to whom she is writing; they show how 
her happiness never depended on anything that 
she might obtain for herself, while she magnifies 
whatever others do for her. Social gatherings 
that brought old friends and new together she 
enjoyed in a simple, whole-hearted way; she 
cordially approved of fun and encouraged it by 
giving and taking it, but never seemed to seek 
diversion. Her happiness came from what was 
close at hand, especially in the simple every day 
gifts that are bestowed on us all. Among her 
papers is found this "Line of Cheer:" 

" / love the air of hill and sea 
That fiuts its crisfiness into me. 
I love the smiling of the sky 
That sets its twinkle in mine eye. 



44 A SKETCH 

I love the -vigor of the gale 

That lends me strength where jnine doth fail. 

I love the golden light of day 

That makes my jaded sfiirit gay. 

I lave the dark of night whose guest 

I find myself when I would rest. 

And gratitude doth hold me thrall 

Unto the Giver of them all.^^ 

A few sentences taken at random from the let- 
ters show that this expressed what was in her 
mind: "The day has been beautiful. You know 
this is the rainless season and the hills, as we came 
along, were all brown, no green grass anywhere, 
but the trees are beautiful with very full leafage, 
showing that the air is very moist. ... I wish 
that you could see 'The Springs' now it is so 
very beautiful. ... I have some dear little finches 
building in their evergreen trees. I think that 
there are several pairs. Tell Gregg that I can 
look from my chamber window directly into a 
robin's nest." 

In one of her letters to her grandchildren 
she sa)'s : " I went down to the Young Women's 
Christian Association rooms yesterday afternoon 
to take tea and hear the report of those who have 
been raising money to support the work there. 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 45 

Some little girls were having their gymnastic les- 
sons and were having a very jolly time. At last 
the leaves are all off of the trees and I think the 
little wayside flowers must have had their noses 
pinched last night by Jack Frost." 

Her interest not only in the beauty of the 
world about her but in what others are doing 
to make it bring forth and bud for the good 
of mankind is shown over and over; ^' Alice is 
happy," she writes, "to have the weather warmer 
for her garden. She thinks that her vegetables 
have had too much hail and cold weather, but 
the last two days have been fine. The country 
here responds very quickly to showers, the trees 
and grass now are in perfection and the whole 
town is beautifully dressed. I have never seen it 
looking better notwithstanding the dandelions." 

The family letters abound in allusions to the 
grandchildren and touch upon all the varied inter- 
ests of her children; many were written directly 
to the grandchildren. It was beautifi.il to see the 
joy those little people brought to her, and it was 
characteristic of her that, never thinking of what 
might be considered as due her, she was surprised 
when a second grandchild was given her name. 



46 J SKETCH 

On March 5, 1909, she writes: "I was so 
pleased this morning to have a telegram about 
the new little girl, and you were fooling Farwell 
about the name; I can't believe that she is named 
already and for me. If she really has the name 
of Alice, I hope that she will be a better woman 
than I have been. I am crazy to see her and 
am wondering if she looks as little Faith did and 
has as much hair. Oh dear ! the distance is tre- 
mendous sometimes. I do wish that I had a home 
nearer my family. 

"What did 'Sister' say? What did Alan say 
and do? . . . My best love and congratulations 
to each. I am so glad to have another grand- 
daughter." 

Each one of the grandchildren had a special 
place in her thought and affections, and was beau- 
tiful to her. "The children are well and really 
pretty, — but not in pictures," she writes once. 

The strength of her hands was largely used 
in knitting dainty garments for the children and 
their mothers. During her last summer she 
spoke of this to a friend, as if apologizing for 
not working solely for our soldiers, instead of 
indulging herself in doing what she did for her 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 47 

own, who ''seemed to like what she made for 
them." This is the only self-indulgence that is 
mentioned in all the letters that have been read 
in preparing this sketch. Remembering how large 
were her gifts to war relief compared to what 
she ever spent for herself, one can think only 
with delight that she had the pleasure of weav- 
ing so many loving thoughts for those dearest to 
her into her last gifts to them. 

The following shows a tact that often wins 
where criticism would lose : '' It was Maude's 
birthday yesterday . . . two friends came to din- 
ner. The second maid had the misfortune to fall 
down, or rather turn her ankle standing up, and 
she had to be put to bed. The cook is a good- 
natured girl and she thought that she could wait 
on the table. I did not think much of her ability, 
but thanked her, gave her a few instructions, 
and told her to put on a white waist and wear 
a good white apron. Well I was repaid for not 
showing any doubt to her, for she waited very 
well indeed, and all went merry as a birthday 
bell." 

She does not hesitate to criticize herself, even 
to the point of placing herself in a ridiculous 



48 A SKETCH 

light, one of the hallmarks never found on small 
souls. For instance, she once wrote: "You will 
be interested in my yesterday afternoon exploits. 
I started to crochet a white hand-bag, like one 

that Mrs. S is making, and after I had done 

quite a lot, I found a mistake away back and 
so went to work and took it out. Then I thought 
I would fill one of my fountain pens, and when 
I thought that I had been unusually expeditious 
and neat, I looked in the glass and found my 
best white waist splashed up with the ink. Wasn't 
I a very low-spirited woman! This morning I 
am trying to reduce the brilliant color of the 
spots by putting on salt and lemon and putting 
in the sun, but I know not if they will go, but 
I consider them a disgrace to Alice Cogswell 
Bemis.^'' 

The letters give glimpses of many personal 
gifts that were so well concealed from all except 
those to whom they were made. It is shown that 
these were not given impulsively, but were care- 
ftilly thought out and almost invariably planned 
to meet what seemed to her a definite need. For 
example: "I have told Mrs. Gregg about my 
plan for a trip for Gregg and herself and offered 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 49 

to pay all the expense. . . . I will enclose a check 
which you can fill out as I have no idea how 
much it will cost. At any rate please use it and 
send Gregg away for a while; it will be a benefit 
to him to travel and be away fi-om servants. Let 
him look after himself." 

She rarely gives advice, but frequently makes 
friendly suggestions backed by the material 
wherewithal necessary to carry them out.'' I have 
been sorry to know that Gregg has been having 
so much cold; it came to me one night that per- 
haps it would do him good to take a trip down 

to Hampton. I remember that Mrs. B had 

a son with General Armstrong at Hampton, 
teaching typesetting, and she went down to see 
him. She told me of some people who went down 
there every year to avoid the snows because they 
never had catarrhal troubles at Hampton. She 
said that it was a fine climate, so I wondered . . . 
if it would not do Gregg good to go down there 
and live in the open air of that lovely region for 
several weeks." 

In writing to her son in February, 1907, of 
the laying of the corner-stone of Bemis Hall, at 
Colorado College, she makes no allusion to the 



50 A SKETCH 

gift that made this building possible, and says 
only : '' I suppose Gregg wrote you or Sister that 
I helped lay the corner-stone of the new hall yes- 
terday morning. Mrs. S., one of the 1908 Class, 
and myself patted on the cement. Gregg re- 
marked if Daddy and Alan had been there, there 
would have been a lot more put on. The wind 
was very chilly yesterday, but we were not there 
very long and we were fairly well wrapped." 

Mrs. Bemis had an attack of appendicitis while in 
Boston in the autumn of 1910, which made an 
immediate operation necessary. When she was 
able to be moved, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor took 
her to Asheville for the winter, as she was not 
strong enough for the longer trip to Colorado; 
but the weather there that year was very unfor- 
tunate for an invalid, and later they went to 
Atlantic City. Here Mr. Bemis joined them; he 
now was able to make business arrangements 
that relieved him of the many details he had long 
carried, and a new era in the family life was 
begun — the happiest of all. 

From that time all enforced separations were 
over, and he was with his wife continuously 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 51 

wherever it was best for her to be. When, after a 
year, she was able to return to Colorado Springs, 
she was veiy happy to be again in her home, and 
the old life among friends was resumed as always, 
quickly and happily. 

Birthdays and wedding anniversaries were gala 
days in the family, especially Mr. Bemis's birth- 
day, when there was always a large dinner party 
with intimate friends added to the family group. 
Fun and abounding cheer were invariably among 
the good things provided. As these days came 
around there was no abatement of interest in them 
and of cheerful outward observance. 

For many years very definite plans were made 
by the children for the golden wedding of their 
father and mother, on November 21, 1916. That 
was to be the crowning day of all the family 
days, and though Mrs. Bemis sometimes pro- 
tested against planning for it, saying that she 
could n't expect to see that day, as it approached 
she took much pleasure in the plans her children 
made for it. They were all to come home, each 
bringing one or more of the grandchildren. Their 
mother was to have no care whatever in connec- 



52 A SKETCH 

tion with the celebration. Mrs. Taylor, the only 
one whose home was in Colorado Springs, made 
arrangements to have the family dinner in her 
own house and later in the evening a reception 
for friends. 

The summer of 1916 was passed as usual at 
Mohonk, and was followed by the stay of some 
weeks in Boston that Mr. and Mrs. Bemis made 
each autumn. While there, Mrs. Bemis had a 
fall, which later proved to have serious effects. 
This was barely a month before the golden wed- 
ding, and though she tried to treat it lightly and 
took the journey to Colorado Springs, on arriv- 
ing there she consulted her physician, who said 
that a surgical operation was necessary. She 
wanted to postpone it until after the golden wed- 
ding celebration, but he was not willing to risk 
any delay, and on November 16 she went 
through the ordeal. The convalescence was more 
rapid than the family had dared to hope, but they 
knew that the situation was still serious when 
the wedding day came. To them fell the delicate 
task of planning to observe it so that Mrs. Bemis 
would not know it was done with anxious hearts, 
and of making it only a time of rejoicing, and 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 53 

withal to do this in a way that would not tax 
her in the least. 

There was an early dinner for old and young, 
with one vacant place, in the family home. Let- 
ters, telegrams, and whatever else had been writ- 
ten for the occasion were read, and then all went 
to the hospital for a short call. Five grandchil- 
dren were there, representing each of the three 
families; with Mr. Bemis and their parents they 
entered the invalid's room in procession. Each 
child carried a long-stemmed golden chrysanthe- 
mum, the girls dressed in white with yellow rib- 
bon bows on their hair, the boys wearing yellow 
neckties; the older ones each gave her a few 
words of greeting as cheerfully as if they had 
come with light hearts from a feast where there 
was no shadow. "Just like the Bemises," it was 
said. 

She was able to listen to a number of letters 
and telegrams and to enjoy some of the flowers 
that had been sent in great abundance to the 
house. In writing of that day, one of her chil- 
dren says : " I shall never forget her face looking 
so thin and delicate but so beaming with happi- 
ness and the humorous twinkle of her eyes be- 



54 J SKETCH 

hind her spectacles. Grandpa walked at the head 
of the procession looking Y&ry proud and happy 
and making a great tramping and show at keep- 
ing time. Doree Taylor's golden curls were like 
sunshine, and we were all so happy to think that 
in spite of all our fears Mama Bemis was still 
with us. How glad we all are that we had that 
happy time together!" 

All her good pluck and its continuance in the 
days that followed had its good result. At first 
the convalescence was surprisingly rapid, and in 
a few weeks she was able to leave the hospital 
and begin the climb back to her old strength. 
It was a trying winter, but a trip to California 
helped her much, so that when she reached Mo- 
honk for her last stay there the gain was marked 
and she moved about with ease. One of her 
friends who spent the summer near her states that 
she spoke often of this gain, and showed her old 
cheer and interest in all that affected her friends 
and in the stirring events throughout the world 
and especially in the great war into which we had 
entered ; and that she talked more often than was 
her wont of the inner life and of the inevitable 
change — the great adventure — and the revela- 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 55 

tions it would bring. She spoke as if she thought 
it might come to her in the near fliture, but al- 
ways with a quiet acceptance of it as one expe- 
rience in the continuous life. 

For one reason only she would have it delayed, 
that her husband might not have to take the rest 
of his journey alone. This wish was not fulfilled, 
for the transition came quickly. She was spared 
what would have been difficult for one with her 
independent spirit — a long time of physical de- 
pendence on others. On October 9 she left Bos- 
ton with her husband for Colorado. A slight cold 
which she had seemed better on reaching Chi- 
cago, but on arriving home it increased, and 
though she tried to ignore it for a day or two, 
she was obliged to call her physician. It soon 
proved very serious; double pneumonia devel- 
oped rapidly, and on the 18th, with her husband 
and all her children around her, she passed peace- 
ftilly and without pain into the fuller life. 

A brief service was held in the First Congre- 
gational Church of Colorado Springs on the after- 
noon of the following day, and in the evening 
Mr. Bemis and all his family left for the east 
with the body which, on October 23, was laid in 



56 A SKETCH 

the Newton Cemetery beside those of her two 
children. The funeral was held at two o'clock on 
the afternoon of that day in the chapel of the 
Newton Cemetery. Friends and relatives from 
many directions were gathered there, and the 
chancel was filled with flowers sent from far and 
near. 

It was one of New England's most glorious 
autumn days. Though there was no wind, the 
bright leaves fell in abundance quietly and stead- 
ily in the warm sunshine. 

The service was conducted by the Rev. James 
B. Gregg, D.D., for over thirty years a personal 
friend of the family, and bound to Mr. and Mrs. 
Bemis by a very close and tender tie in the mar- 
riage of their son to his daughter Faith. He was 
also their pastor in Colorado Springs for twenty- 
seven years. The service was very simple, con- 
sisting only of wisely chosen selections from the 
Bible, frill of tenderness and of joy and faith in 
the eternal, followed by an uplifting and strength- 
ening prayer that Dr. Gregg had written for that 
special service. 

This brief sketch of one into whose life came far 



ALICE COGSWELL BEMIS 57 

more than the ordinary measure of happiness, 
and who had the heart and the will to bring all 
the happiness she could to others, is all too in- 
adequate; the only justification for its existence 
lies in the hope that it may, in some degree, sug- 
gest to her children's children and to those who 
come after them, the personality that was so dear 
and so human to those who knew her, so unselfish 
and so thoughtfiil for others, so mindful of the 
fact that this life of ours is only a stewardship. 



30- ^'^ 



